Godspeed You! Black Emperor

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with Jessica Moss Godspeed You! Black Emperor began with Efrim Menuck, Mauro Pezzente and Mike Moya in Montral in the early 90s, playing a handful of shows and recording a self-released cassette as a trio before beginning to transform the group into a large band. Recruiting numerous Montreal musicians through 1995-1996, GYBE mounted sense-rattling wall-of-sound performances, featuring as many as 14 musicians and several 16mm film projectors, eventually self-recording their debut vinyl-only version of F#A#, released on Constellation in late summer 1997. The band's Hotel2Tango warehouse space in Montral's Mile-End district was a central hive of DIY activity, with band rehearsal rooms, silkscreen and wood shops, and weekend shows that took place under the radar.The group settled into a permanent nine-member line-up by late 1998, with Aidan Girt and Bruce Cawdron on drums, Thierry Amar and Mauro on basses, Efrim, Dave Bryant and Roger Tellier-Craig on guitars, and Norsola Johnson and Sophie Trudeau on cello and violin respectively. The band toured and recorded continuously from 1998-2002 and gained a reputation for mesmerising live shows marked by orchestral dynamics, epic rock power and clunky, beautiful film loops. Following hundreds of concerts and the release of four records F#A# (1997), Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada EP (1999), and the double albums Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven (2000) and Yanqui U.X.O. (2002), GYBE went on hiatus in 2003.Various GYBE offshoots continued with their own momentum through the 2000s, most notably The Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band (including Efrim, Sophie and Thierry), Hrsta (led by Moya), Fly Pan Am (featuring Roger), Esmerine (co-founded by Bruce), 1-Speed Bike (Aidan's solo punk-techno project) and Set Fire To Flames (led by Dave, and including Bruce, Moya, Roger and Sophie).Godspeed returned to live performance in December 2010, when the band was invited to curate and perform at All Tomorrows Parties in the UK. This was followed by renewed and extensive international touring. October 2012 saw the release of 'ALLELUJAH! DON'T BEND! ASCEND!, their first recorded work in a decade, to near-unanimous critical acclaim, including a 9.3 rating and Best New Music at Pitchfork and the appearance on countless year-end lists. The similarly praised 'Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress' followed in March 2015; this album marked the group's first personnel change in many years, with Tim Herzog replacing Bruce on drums. Throughout Godspeed's 'post-hiatus' period, experimental filmmaker Karl Lemieux has been the band's primary creator (and projectionist) of 16mm film footage and loops; an array of analog film projectors remains central to GYBE's live performances.Godspeed collaborated with Holy Body Tattoo on monumental in 2016-2017, performing live to the acclaimed modern dance piece in various cities around the world. The band also premiered new work commissioned to memorialize the 100th anniversary of the WWI Battle of Messines at a live concert event on the site of the massacre at Heuvelland, Belgium in June 2017.Godspeed You! Black Emperor announced their third post-reunion album (and seventh record overall) Luciferian Towers in early August, with a 22 September 2017 release date.

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Godspeed You! Black Emperor:
Godspeed You! Black Emperor (formerly known as Godspeed You Black Emperor!) is a Canadian post-rock band based in Montreal, Quebec. They take their name from God Speed You! Black Emperor, an obscure 1976 Japanese black-and-white documentary by director Mitsuo Yanagimachi, which follows the exploits of a Japanese biker gang, the Black Emperors. The band is most commonly classified as post rock, but they exist outside any established scene and take influences from a range of styles including progressive rock, punk, classical music and the avant-garde. Their records each consist of a few fairly long tracks (mostly between 10-20 minutes), divided into "movements" which are sometimes specified in the record sleeve. The band formed around 1994 with three members, but its lineup has changed frequently. The band has had as many as fifteen members at one time, but has tended to settle down to a group of nine. The instruments played vary with the lineup, but the music tends to be based around electric and bass guitars, strings and a percussion section. Other instruments such as the glockenspiel and the French horn make more occasional appearances. The music on some of their records is accompanied by spoken samples recorded by the band across North America, including an apocalyptic street preacher from Providence, Rhode Island, an announcement at a gas station, and a group of children talking and singing in French. The band members have in the past been reluctant to go in for the traditional self-publicising interviews, and have openly expressed their distaste for the mainstream, corporation-owned music industry. This has given them a reputation as shadowy, even anti-social figures, and not a great deal is known about them personally. They did, however, become considerably more widely known after appearing on the cover of British music magazine the NME in 1999. The member who interacts with the press the most is Efrim Menuck, and for this reason he is sometimes presented as a front-man. However, he has strongly repudiated this label. Members of the group have formed a number of side-projects, including A Silver Mt. Zion, Fly Pan Am and Set Fire to Flames. The band contributed the song "East Hastings" to the soundtrack of the UK film 28 Days Later, although it is only featured in the film and not on the soundtrack available for purchase. The band released the CD versions of its first two albums on the Kranky record label, with the LPs being published by Constellation Records; the contract with Kranky having run out, both the LP and the CD of Yanqui U.X.O. were produced by Constellation. In 2004, long-time guitarist Roger-Tellier Craig left the band on amicable terms and to devote more time to Fly Pan Am. The band has often played an unrecorded song entitled "Albanian" when touring. Efrim has said that when the band reform they will record it for their next release. Another unreleased song, "Gamelan," may also be recorded. However, due to the band's open taping policy, both these songs are available as high quality audience recordings. It has frequently been the case, in fact, that new material is released through the fans before its official recording. Thanks to Wikipedia.